UK REIT British Land is in the market looking for around £300m of debt to refinance a retail portfolio held by one of its Tesco joint ventures.
It is thought to be looking to put together a consortium of lenders to provide debt at low leverage and pricing is expected to be tighter than 150 basis points.
A club of five lenders comprising what was then called Eurohypo, Helaba, Santander Corporate Banking, Calyon Crédit Agricole CIB and Nationwide Building Society, last refinanced the debt in late 2009. A five-year loan was issued to repay an existing bank loan at maturity.
The 50/50 Tesco joint venture in question was established in 1999 and now owns a portfolio of two retail parks, two shopping centres and four Tesco superstores, valued at £516m as at 31 March 2013. The principal amount of debt outstanding against it stood at £279m.
It is one of five JVs between British Land and Tesco, which together hold properties valued at £1.7bn.